Taste Test Fun

I'm not saying I have one, but if I did have a signature baked good, I think it would be this Lemon Tea Bread. A friend from work shared the recipe with me years ago, and although I've made a few changes, it's still one of my favorite things to make during lemon season. My mother-in-law almost drew up a business plan for me to start selling them by the loaf. I think we found a similar recipe in one of her mother's old cookbooks so that put the kibosh on that million-dollar idea.

Last week, I was shopping and found this Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend product and thought I would give it a try. It's better for you than butter (with less saturated fat) but it doesn't have any hydrogenated oils like margarine. Because I'm always trying to eat better and because of my passion for taste tests (sometime I'll have to tell you about a chocolate tasting party I hosted last year), I decided to make two batches of this (essentially) lemon cake: one with butter and one with this new butter blend.

As the photos would indicate, the loaf on the left is made with butter and the loaf on the right is made with the butter blend. Which do you think my family and I liked better? Everything else being equal, we preffered the loaf with the 50/50 Butter Blend. Both tasted great, but as silly as this may sound, the loaf made with butter tasted more buttery. And not necessarily in a good way because the butter blend loaf was more lemony and didn't seem as heavy. It had a better texture, too--softer, moister, and less dense.

The downside of the 50/50 Butter Blend is that it's expensive. Some people use margarine for baking because it's less than $1/pound while butter is about $4/pound. Admittedly, I bought the butter blend because it was on sale and I had a coupon. I probably wouldn't buy it otherwise, though. But who knows? I used to be one of those margarine-using people and I turned into a butter-using person. Maybe I'll eventually I'll use the butter blend for all my baking.

Lemon Tea Bread

1/2 stick butter or butter blend

1 c sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 T lemon juice

1 T lemon zest

1 1/2 c flour

1 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

Glaze: Combine 2 T lemon juice, 1 T lemon zest, and 1/4 c sugar.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add lemon juice and zest. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and mix until just combined. Pour into two small loaf pans lightly coated with cooking spray. Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 10 minutes and invert. Top with glaze. Allow loaves to cool completely on rack. Wrap and chill.